The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Proper 12B
Jesus taking the loaves of bread and feeding the crowds is a miracle that is so quintessentially Jesus that it shows up in all four gospels. Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, distributes it, and all are fed.
The crowds were hungry, and he feeds them. He gives them their daily bread so that they don’t walk away hungry. What feels like too little – five barley loaves, two fish – soon becomes enough to feed the multitudes. There is abundance in gratitude – there is abundance in God.
God takes our little offering and gives us greater gifts because God is a giver. God loves to give, to feed. God does not need to hoard up stuff like a greedy person. God loves to share, to nourish. In this miracle of the feeding, Christ is showing us his divine nature. The divine nature is to give, to share.
This feeding miracle has such Eucharistic undertones, it feels vaguely like communion. Jesus gives thanks, breaks the bread, and distributes the loaves and fishes. That makes good sense. Jesus is the Bread of Life, after all (foreshadowing: the next few weeks will be on Jesus saying he is the Bread of Life).
But I also think we would be wise to think of it in other ways, too. God’s generosity and abundance show up in other ways in our lives. God loves to give. One of our most important spiritual disciplines is noticing all the ways that God cares for us. Our gratitude helps us to notice God’s generosity better, and then we rejoice in all the ways that God cares for us. Gratitude is at the heart of the Christian way of life.
And we, too, love giving. Generosity is also part of our human makeup. We are made in God’s image – God is a giver, and so are we. We give.
It’s not just because Christ calls us to feed the hungry that we collect food for the St Vincent food pantry, that we help with the Food Truck, that we serve the Friendship Meal (Food Truck and Friendship Meal are this week!). We know it’s important to give, and it helps us to live more like Jesus Christ.
Generosity shows up in our offertory, our pledge campaign, the ministries that everyone is engaged in. Generosity is a way of life.
I find myself wondering how else this generosity shows up in our way of worship. I found myself reflecting on something our Orthodox Christian siblings do in their worship. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, before the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest takes the loaf of bread (they use a circular, leavened loaf, not wafers), says a blessing, and cuts it with a knife in special ritual ways. Part of that loaf is going to be used on the altar for the Eucharist. Other parts of the bread are set aside as something called the antidoron. This bread is blessed, but it is not consecrated. It is holy bread, but it is not communion. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, only Orthodox Christians may share in communion, but anyone may share in the antidoron. It is, for them, a reminder of the generosity of God. It is freely given away.
And so I think of that most important of Episcopal practices: coffee hour. Coffee hour is another wonderful practice of generosity.
Now, I’m not advocating using communion wafers as hors d’oeuvres to connect our worship at the altar with the generosity of coffee hour. The communion wafers aren’t the Body and Blood of Christ until they’re up on the altar with a priest leading the Eucharistic Prayer … but it would still feel off. It would feel confusing. And would probably get the wrong kind of attention.
But coffee hour is part of our way of worship. God is generous; so are we. We take a little, and we make it a lot. Sometimes the snacks for coffee hour are simple, like crackers and cheese and fruit. And it’s more than enough. Sometimes someone goes all out making something fancy, and it’s also more than enough. And, as I’ve often stated, if all we had was coffee because no one was signed up to put together coffee hour, that, too would be more than enough.
The generosity of the folks who bring stuff in for coffee hour, and the generosity of folks who pledge and offer money so we can buy coffee and sugar and have the lights on and the AC on … that generosity is part of our way of life.
Coffee hour is holy, it is fellowship, it is generosity. It is where we greet friends and make room for new friends. It is where we take the love of Christ given to us and share it with one another.
And coffee hour is where the most central ministers are not wearing collars – it’s everyone else. I’m in the back of the church talking with folks after the service. It’s a time for brief pastoral care, checking in on folks. But the coffee hour hosts sneak off to get the coffee started and set things out. And everyone else who goes to share a snack, and everyone who invites new folks to sit with them, everyone else makes that fellowship happen. The generosity of coffee hour is an essential practice.
So, while we’re not going to try to mimic the Eastern Orthodox practice of antidoron, I do want us to connect the bread that Jesus blesses and breaks to feed the multitudes and the Eucharist with our coffee hour. Christ is generous; you are generous; and we rejoice in that generosity. I have some loaves of bread here. Would you turn to page 835 in the prayer book, and let’s read all four of the graces for meals. Read them slowly – each one is wonderful. Then I’ll set the loaves over here, and the folks who head out to take care of coffee hour for us, please pick them up, and when you go to coffee hour, take some bread, break it, and share it. The generosity of God is more than enough.
Now, open that prayer book…